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The Zenith is a modern, fully ambidextrous and ergonomic pistol. It's very modular, equipped with a Picatinny rail system and can also accept a sound suppressor. The magazine holds only 10 rounds but its capacity can be increased. The Zenith features orange tritium-illuminated iron sights.

It is in extremely common use, so ammo will never be an issue, and its penchant for taking upgrades means it can eventually be a formidable backup weapon. The silencer and laser sight, along with the aforesaid upgrade capacity, also make it a surprisingly good main weapon for a non-pacifist player who wishes to be stealthy, though it is not suitable for full-scale combat situations unless (almost) fully upgraded. A silenced Zenith is a useful tool even for pacifists, as it may be used to lure enemies into locations away from their patrol path so that they can be disposed of discretely; when a shot is fired, enemies will investigate by walking to where the shot hit.

The armor-piercing upgrade ignores all armor bonuses, meaning headshots from the pistol are exceptionally lethal and as such, should be considered even by Pacifists (for bosses). Most non-boss human opponents will be killed with a single headshot from a Zenith with the armor-piercing upgrade, even without any damage upgrades; heavy troopers will take two. Because of this, one might upgrade it with the armor-piercing, silencer, and laser sight mods, and reserve the other upgrades for alternative weapons. Ammunition stacks are 2x1, with each stack holding up to 50 rounds.

The pistol is one of the most common weapons in enemy hands, and is not particularly threatening when used by them; while no enemy should be underestimated, the player will only really find themselves in trouble if they are surrounded by several enemies with these weapons. Pistols are typically limited to lower-level enemies such as street thugs, security personnel and lightly armored soldiers.

It uses the powerful 10mm Auto bullets. While not reflected in-game, in reality the 10mm Auto is more powerful than the .357 Magnum ammunition used in the Revolver, when comparing standard loads.

When in cover, the reload animation shows the slide lock back regardless of whether or not there is still a round in the chamber.

The slide can be taken from any M1911 model variant. It also bears resemblance, specifically in the contour of the grip and the way that the magazine fits into it, to the Walther P99, and even more to the P22. It has been modified to include an internal hammer system akin to Glock pistols by the time of Mankind Divided, as well.

The Pistol has excellent handling characteristics and is very easy to deliver headshots with. When you are behind cover, prepare your "cover reticle" over the enemies head and pop-out of cover during their burst fire and you can often land headshots during their suppressing fire (the Laser Sight is very helpful here).

The Pistol can land headshots after 4-5 shots during "blind-fire" if you aim correctly at the enemy. While the "blind-fire" mode causes maximum bloom, it will reliably put a round exactly where you want it 4 out of 5 times if you have more ammunition than health (good with the armor-piercing attachment against heavy soldiers).

Jensen will always perform a brass check upon equipping the Zenith. This is the only weapon to feature this animation.

The brass check will always show a visible bullet in the chamber, even if the pistol is completely empty.

The 80-X Boxguard is surprisingly vulnerable towards the Zenith with the armor-piercing rounds mods attached. About 2 and a half magazines can destroy one such unit, even when unupgraded, however the shots must not land on the robot's armor plates as these will reduce the damage done.

In a beta screenshot, however, the slide of the pistol is colored in the standard grey-white, albeit somewhat modified from the original version with the most prominent change being the large model name "Zenith" taking the place of the Steiner-Bisley logo.